Four years ago, I was honored to be elected to the Colorado Mountain College board of trustees, and I am running unopposed for a second term. I now ask you to elect Marianne Virgili and Bob Hartzell, both experienced civic leaders with long histories of business success, very knowledgeable about our communities and well respected by their constituents.
CMC is in the business of education, a business that has built a strong team of educators at 11 campuses, a business with an excellent team of administrators to support our educational professionals and the campuses in which they teach and nurture our 20,000 students.
I stress the business aspect of a multicampus two- and four-year degree college with almost 1,000 employees. The board of trustees role is to oversee the CMC leadership, our mission and our taxpayers’ investment in the success of the college, our students and communities. The position of trustee requires an enormous amount of time, passion and commitment. (Think county commissioner without compensation.) As retired professionals, Virgili and Hartzell have, and are ready to commit, the time necessary to represent our students, faculty, staff and taxpayers in pursuit of educational excellence.
Virgili served for 30 years as director of the Glenwood Springs Chamber of Commerce as a visionary and collaborator with hundreds of business owners and community leaders. She has also been a champion for CMC, leading successful campaigns including lobbying our state legislators to introduce bachelor’s degree programs for CMC and chairing CMC’s challenge to the Gallagher Amendment to keep your tax dollars supporting CMC, not Front Range growth.
Hartzell’s experience clearly makes him the most qualified candidate from Lake County. He has been a leader in Leadville since 1970. He held multiple positions at CMC from 1979-2004, he designed and directed the prestigious Central Rockies Leadership Program with CMC-10 years, honing the skills of hundreds of aspiring leaders from our vital community organization.